The Atlantic Hurricane “Season” is from June 1st to November 30th of every year with peak activity occurring in September. This year, as with every year, countless people throughout the Caribbean and the eastern coast of the United States are watching satellite images, tracking storms, and preparing their homes for six months of the year – all the while hoping and praying. While Hurricane Dorian did minimal damage on St. Croix, its impact on our sister islands, St. Thomas and St. John, was felt more directly. As we collectively grieved for the catastrophic damage Dorian wreaked on the Bahamas, St. Croix Foundation for Community Development is profoundly cognizant that the process of recovery in the face of Category 5 hurricanes is a long and arduous one. As island nations around the world are being forced to annually deal with the global impacts of climate change, the Foundation is committed to leading a progressive and focused resiliency agenda for the people of St. Croix and the entire Virgin Islands.

With St. Croix’s only hospital still condemned two years after Category 5 Hurricanes Maria and Irma and with almost half of our public schools closed, we are still living with the long-term impacts of the disaster. We also know recovery is no quick exercise. Once the emergency relief ends, the process of rebuilding the social consciousness and systems begins – and it can take decades. During and after hurricanes it is communities, it is neighbors, it is the social infrastructure of a place that must come together, collaboratively, to foster front-line survival and long-term recovery. We witnessed it every day. And that’s why the Foundation is dedicated to continuing to build on the momentum we have achieved by nurturing greater capacity in our nonprofits through our Nonprofit Consortium.

With over 25 official members and another 20 active participants, our NPC represents every sector in our civil society– from arts and cultural heritage to health human welfare – and, during this past quarter has been building off previous strategies to leverage our momentum for greater impact. The NPC continues to empower and equip nonprofits with the tools to hone in on specific actions around strengthening our resiliency and embedding it into a holistic, equitable and sustainable Vision.

We’re mindful, every single day, that we could not do this without our GlobalGiving partners, and in honor of communities just like ours who are struggling, we want you to know that we build with intention to help create a community-based model of resiliency.

Skill-Building that Empowers Leaders to Advocate and ServeIn June, St. Croix Foundation invited world-renowned systems change strategist, Tuesday Ryan-Hart back to St. Croix for her second visit with our Nonprofit Consortium and community members.

Last summer, Ms. Ryan-Hart introduced local nonprofits to a new concept of community engagement, entitled “The Art of Hosting” (AoH), to initiate conversations and training around high impact collaborations and leadership development. This summer, building off her first visit, Ms. Ryan-Hart provided more individualized trainings around collaboration and shared work to nurture further capacity around the spirit of collaboration to address systemic issues. Today, the Foundation is acutely sensitized to the fact that Systemic Change in our Civic Sector (and all sectors of our community) must happen in order for our entire Territory to not only survive but to thrive. As such, the Foundation has committed to drilling down deeper.

Ms. Ryan-Hart along with fellow AoH practitioner, Kelly McGowan, took a deeper dive into the concepts surrounding the Art of Hosting and provided fully immersive trainings in the practice. In total, over 40 nonprofit partners attended the two-day workshop in which diverse community stakeholders explored and unpacked barriers to effective collaborations to include acknowledging perceptions of where and how Power sits in a room; mutual agreements around shared work and shared values; how stakeholders host themselves as Individual Leaders vs. Organizational Leaders in collaborative spaces; and how to find balance between Chaos and Order in complex systems.

Ms. Ryan-Hart’s engagement represents the deepening of our commitment to a progressive and sustainable approach to capacity building in our civic sector. Thanks to our GlobalGiving family, and some very special corporate and individual friends of the Foundation, the Nonprofit Consortium will continue to provide vital services to our community while also moving the needle on entrenched social issues.

The Nonprofit Consortium Connects for Data and AdvocacyIn August, the Nonprofit Consortium hosted a week of sector meetings for St. Croix nonprofits to explore the following:

Organizational Sustainability, including how the Nonprofit Consortium (as a body) can contribute to the mission and vision of each individual organization; and how the NPC can help organizations meet the fiscal and organizational needs of nonprofits given system-wide dysfunction.

Community Organizing, including strengthening consensus on place-based priorities and determining the necessary steps for diverse nonprofits to come together around work to leverage resources for greater impact.

After four days of work with 20 organizations sitting at the table, the NPC determined that data collection is one of the most critical variables in ensuring organizational sustainability, the ability to be effective community organizers and to build capacity within the Consortium itself. The Consortium established major milestones and metrics to be observed and formally committed to a six-month deep dive into the data behind their work. Beginning with a planning phase in September and a 3-month period during which relevant sector-related data will be collected, the NPC has a projected date of February 2020 to begin reporting to the community and global stakeholders.

Making the Case for St. Croix on Capitol HillWhile the Consortium builds capacity, St. Croix Foundation continues to take every opportunity to educate the nation on the true conditions people in the Virgin Islands are still facing.

Our president, Deanna James along with the Foundation’s Local Disaster Recovery Manager, Kemit Lewis, traveled to the capitol this past August to build networks and support for the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to direct more federal and philanthropic resources to the Territory and more specifically to our local nonprofits on St. Croix.

Our Delegates were able to describe the St. Croix story, which dates back much farther than the two Cat. 5 storms that hit the island in 2017 - from the reality of being a territory with no voting rights to the lingering impact of Hurricane Hugo and the economic recession resulting from a failed oil refinery.

As the Foundation and the Nonprofit Consortium work to move the needs forward on true resilience over the long-term, ensuring that the reality of St. Croix’s needs andassets are fully understood is paramount—and the Foundation is committed to giving voice to Virgin Islanders and strengthening our nonprofits.

The Voice of the Civic SectorWe thank our GlobalGiving partners near and far for their commitment to St. Croix and the Virgin Islands. Not only has your partnership provided financial and networking resources for us to show the power of philanthropy when partners of all sizes collaborate – it has given us an opportunity to have a voice far beyond our shores. That empowerment leads St. Croix Foundation to pay it forward, and we will soon be announcing and sharing a very special Movement Building Activity that our Nonprofit Consortium will be voicing this fall.

Before Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the U.S. Caribbean, St. Croix Foundation couldn’t have known how critical our Nonprofit Consortium would become over the next several years. But as a nimble and innovative place-based community foundation committed to equity, resilience, and collaboration (even before the storms), we knew how important social infrastructure was for the overall health and welfare of a place. We had also seen the powerful impact of strong nonprofits. Initially conceptualized in response to the growing economic crisis on St. Croix, in September 2016 the Foundation launched our Nonprofit Consortium and for a year prior to the hurricanes had been steadily building unity and trust among over 35 organizations. When two Category 5 Hurricanes hit St. Croix in September 2017, nonprofits who’d been working together for a year launched into action, sharing resources - from information about conditions on the ground to labor, equipment, and office space - to get urgent recovery needs filled.

As another hurricane season stretches before us, for the Virgin Islands (and many communities just like ours) the stakes are high. With many residents still living under tarped roofs; with our only community hospital scheduled for a complete rebuild despite still being in limited service; and with the actual rebuilding of physical infrastructure just beginning, support from our global philanthropic community is now more important than ever before. For our community at this time, our social infrastructure is in fact equally (if not more) important as the capacity of local nonprofits (like our community health clinic) to serve and fill gaping service voids can literally mean the difference between life and death for our residents.

The Foundation’s June report is quite special to us because not only have we begun to formalize the building blocks of the Nonprofit Consortium, but we are pleased to report that the work, which has never stopped, is now honing in on targeted activities for a holistic community-based recovery. But first, we would like to pause and dedicate this special report to the many donors – corporate, individual, global and local - who have made the work of the Consortium possible, including our friends at GlobalGiving. Thank you, because from collaborative partnerships and words of encouragement to financial support, you have been a part of the work.

Formalizing the Nonprofit Consortium (NPC)Today St. Croix Foundation is incredibly pleased to report that in April, 22 partners in our Nonprofit Consortium signed Memorandums of Understanding, becoming official members and pledging their commitment to work on building a system of nonprofit collaboration. The Memorandums of Understanding outlined roles and responsibilities of each member for the next year.

The first ‘official’ members of our NPC represent four sectors: Culture & the Arts, Youth & Education, the Natural & Built Environs, and Health & Human Welfare, and range from grassroots movements to formal 501(c)3 organizations. All members are firmly committed to the Foundation’s vision of a robust civic sector on St. Croix and throughout the territory. Over the course of the next year, the NPC’s goal is to expand formal membership to include the entire nonprofit sector on the island and in turn, grow to be an active coalition Territory-wide. Led by an Advisory Committee, comprising a broad cross-section of community stakeholders, consortium members will be provided targeted capacity-building support and from time-to-time convenings will be opened to a wider segment of the local nonprofit community.

The Foundation’s overarching goal is to leverage existing assets in our community into real social infrastructure in order to nurture a more sustainable and resilient recovery. The following organizations and civic projects are now official members of our Nonprofit Consortium and represent a holistic framework for the priorities of the Consortium, its expansion, and ultimately, its impact!

Christiansted Community Alliance

Caribbean Center for Boys and Girls

Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts

Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism, Inc.

Clean Sweep Frederiksted

Diane Hampton Breast Cancer Project

Fish with a Vet

FYR is LIT

Liberty Place

Lutheran Social Services of the Virgin Islands

Music In Motion School of Higher Dance Education

Per Ankh

St. Croix Animal Welfare Center

St. Croix Environmental Association

St. Croix Long Term Recovery Group

St. Croix Montessori

Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center

Virgin Islands Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Council

Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition

Virgin Islands Partners for Healthy Communities

Women’s Coalition of St. Croix

Yvonne A. Galiber Foundation

NPC Sustainable Development Goal PrioritiesToday members of the Consortium and nonprofits are participating in a survey to target the top three priority areas for collaboration (shared resources, accountability, and tactics for addressing challenges) for multi-layered impact. Results will inform the work of the Nonprofit Consortium as it continues to build governing structures. The NPC’s Sustainable Development Survey – in alignment with the United Nations’ own Sustainable Development Goals - will begin to develop consensus around the priorities for the NPC’s own collaborative work. To date, the NPC has developed the following seven focus areas from which the Nonprofit Consortium will identify its priorities:

Zero Hunger- The development of strategies for food sovereignty and a focus on the eradication of hunger and poverty is central to resiliency and sustainability.

Clean Water & Sanitation- Clean, accessible water for all is an essential part of the world we want to live in.

Affordable & Clean Energy- Reliable and equitable access to sustainable energy are central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity.

Life Below Water- Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future.

Life on Land- The ability to sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss is critical to all life.

These priorities will serve to frame the Consortium’s programming and will help to lead the Territory in the first broad-based conversation about sustainability.

Environmental ForumAs the Foundation prepared this report, our Nonprofit Consortium was hard at work wrapping up its first Environmental Resiliency Forum. Like a growing number of island states throughout the region that are establishing audacious goals around climate resiliency and energy carbon neutrality, the NPC is developing its own comprehensive environmental vision for St. Croix.

St. Croix is indeed facing a set of unique challenges, including the restart of one of the world’s largest oil refineries directly after the hurricanes. As such, the Nonprofit Consortium hosted an Environmental Forum this May 31st entitled TheUSVI Environmental Landscape and Activating Community Around Sustainability and Climate Change. The forum was specifically designed to disseminate information, provide a platform for unheard voices, engage national philanthropic partners around environmental justice and advocacy, and build a shared vision for the future.

In attendance were over 30 local nonprofit leaders with expert scholar, David Bond, who presented on the history and context of major environmental impacts such as the building of the HESS Oil Refinery and the Alumina Plant. Attorney Jack Dema also presented data he compiled as legal counsel for the Virgin Islands Government to contest the environmental impacts of the Refinery.

Outcomes from the forum include the development of a community-based Environmental Vision for the Territory. Video from the forum is also being circulated to provide a broader cross-section of our community with a deeper understanding of the real impacts of heavy industry on St. Croix’s environmental landscape.

We hope you’ll take a moment and contact us at 340.773.9898 for footage and interviews from the Environmental Resiliency Forum.

AMERICORPS VISTA

An important objective for the Foundation for the past year has been completing the process of applying for a 15-member VISTA Team to assist eight organizations (including St. Croix Foundation) on St. Croix who have been active participants in our Nonprofit Consortium. With the majority of our nonprofits reporting an increased demand for their services while they grapple with few resources – including staffing – an AmeriCorps VISTA Team on St. Croix will be a major step toward enhancing the capabilities of our nonprofits. In the spring of this year, St. Croix Foundation asked for a VISTA Supervisor to meet with all the organization who will be participating in VISTA Project. The VISTA State Director spoke about the program and compliance and a work session for developing the VISTA assignment descriptions for each position was conducted.

Representing approximately 400 staff hours to date in coordination of nonprofit candidates and the development of a comprehensive application that includes detailed scopes of work and objectives for each organization, this project will be led by St. Croix Foundation, which will also serve as VISTA Team Lead for seven organizations:

Caribbean Centers for Boys & Girls of the Virgin Islands

Clean Sweep Frederiksted

St. Croix Long-Term Recovery Group

St. Croix Montessori

Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition

St. Croix Landmarks Society

Virgin Islands Historic Preservation Commission

The Foundation is pleased to report that we have completed the final submission of the application and, if reviews are favorable, our partnering nonprofits will be able to staff up and build infrastructure around programming and operations beginning in August of this year. This will be the first AmeriCorps VISTA Team to work on St. Croix in over 20 years.

Upcoming ActivitiesAs always, we like to keep you updated on what we’ve got planned next, and the Foundation is currently working on our next convening already. We have invited Tuesday Ryan-Hart back to St. Croix for her second visit with our Nonprofit Consortium and community members, from June 19th-21st, Tuesday will be conducting more individualized trainings with nonprofits around collaboration and shared work.

Building off her first visit, during which she introduced our community to the concepts of Art of Hosting as a progressive pathway to sustained social change and collective impact, we are excited to nurture further capacity around the spirit of collaboration to address systemic issues.

Momentum for the Nonprofit ConsortiumOver the course of the past year and a half, the GlobalGiving community has been integral to the Nonprofit Consortium’s momentum and impact. This work continues to be recognized as a progressive model for community resiliency and sustainable development. While more focus is typically directed at Physical Infrastructure in the aftermath of major disasters, what our Nonprofit Consortium has taught us is that, in reality, fortifying Social Infrastructure is oftentimes the most direct and rooted pathway to supporting vulnerable and marginalized populations. The Foundation is assured that our Consortium is a scalable model that can be replicated in other communities, especially since we have been asked to share our work and best practices with other island states in the region. The Consortium is also presenting us with a viable mechanism for building a broader network of social support systems nationally and throughout the Caribbean.

We are grateful for all of our Partners at GlobalGiving for sharing our vision. Thank you for believing with us that communities have the innate capacity to nurture and sustain resiliency from the inside out. We are just getting started and your partnership is simply invaluable to so many.

In December 2018, St. Croix Foundation gathered its Nonprofit Consortium member organizations to continue to design and discuss steps for formalization and to establish criteria for membership in order to legitimize the Consortium as an entity. Themes discussed included the datapoints for measuring success, how do we ready ourselves, specifically as individual organizations of a whole, for benchmark goals such as accreditation and creating an advocacy-based agenda for each Consortium Sector (Health & Human Services, Youth & Education, the Environs, and Arts & Culture). Out of this meeting, it was decided that the Nonprofit Consortium needed to move toward a more structured level of organization and, that a formal Memorandum of Understanding should be developed in order to strengthen the coalition. After the establishment of an advisory committee (consisting of member organization board members and external stakeholders) and several revisions of a draft MOU, the Consortium members agreed to a formal signing-day for the final memorandum of understanding in mid-March 2019.

Philanthropy Retreat

As previously discussed in early impact reports, a primary objective of the Nonprofit Consortium and the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development is to increase and maintain the national and international profile of philanthropy within the US Caribbean among national and international funders and their networks. With the aim of deepening philanthropic engagement, In February, the Foundation through our Nonprofit Consortium hosted its 3rd Annual Philanthropy Retreat. The invitation-only convening connected national and international senior philanthropy executives with board and staff of the Foundation and its Nonprofit Consortium partners. This year’s convening featured Executives from Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Council on Foundations, the Southeastern Council of Foundations, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, TIDES Foundation, GlobalGiving, and Partnership for Southern Equity.

As a vehicle for supporting St. Croix Foundation’s Nonprofit Consortium, which is an almost 3-year-old association of approximately 35 St. Croix nonprofits, the retreat afforded national funders insight into the inherent challenges and assets of St. Croix’s social and economic landscape.

The theme of this year’s convening was Civic Excellence: Demonstrating Impact in Rural & Isolated Communities. Over the course of 3 days, nonprofits and Foundation Executives convened around issues focused on diaspora philanthropy, social equity and nonprofit capacity building. The weekend also included an island tour with coordinated site visits, as well as a visit to the St. Croix Food and Agricultural Festival- the largest agricultural fair in the Caribbean. During the Retreat, Foundation Executives also gained first-hand insight into the passion and perseverance of St. Croix’s nonprofits which, despite being underfunded, and contending with major facility damages as a result of Hurricane Maria, continue to provide critical services to the most vulnerable residents. As the Foundation deepens our support for St. Croix’s Nonprofit Sector, we are challenging Consortium partners to build new safety networks and social infrastructure that inoculates at-risk residents from the threats of historically dysfunctional and broken governmental systems.

To date, through our Nonprofit Consortium, the Foundation has hosted over 15 Foundation Executives at past Retreats. As a result of each convening, despite the lack of national media attention on the impact of the 2017 storms on the island of St. Croix, the Foundation is building a growing cadre of philanthropic champions on the mainland who know St. Croix, who have intimate insight into St. Croix’s nonprofit landscape and who recognize the potential of our civic leaders to meet the immediate needs of the most vulnerable residents in our community while also building a global model for community resiliency in isolated and developing communities.

Environmental Convening

The Foundation’s Nonprofit Consortium has begun the planning process for an environmental forum scheduled for this summer. The purpose of the convening will be to bring awareness to St. Croix’s environmental sector of nonprofits and to direct focus on the environmental threats and opportunities for building real environmental resiliency for island communities like ours. Our Consortium partners seek to engage both national funders as well as environmental justice experts to provide guidance on how to nurture a culture of advocacy, sustainability and stewardship for the island’s precious natural resources.

A major objective for the St. Croix Foundation and the Nonprofit Consortium has been to maintain visibility on the radar of national funders and networks, especially throughout the recovery and rebuilding period. St. Croix Foundation participated in numerous convenings to continue to educate partners on the mainland regarding post-hurricane realities in our small-island community. In September, Deanna James, Executive Director participated in the Southeastern Council of Foundations’ Breaking Through Barriers meeting in Atlanta, GA. In October, she was invited to be a nonmember attendee at the Environmental Grantmakers Association Annual Retreat in Asheville, NC. For that retreat, Frandelle Gerard of the Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism entity joined Deanna and together they created an appetite for further education from Environmental Funders who will visit St. Croix in January 2019- many for the first time in their organization’s history. In November, as the first foundation members of the US Caribbean, St. Croix Foundation was invited to host a plenary session at the Southeastern Council of Foundations Annual Meeting, Bridge the Divide, in Louisville, Kentucky. Deanna James, as well as Nonprofit Consortium members Sommer Sibilly and Sonia Dow presented on the impact of place-based philanthropy in the US Virgin Islands in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The plenary focused on smart investment in the civic sector and sustainable rebuilding while warding off disaster capitalism. Link.

On November 27 the St. Croix Foundation participated in the USVI Alliance for Response Forum. During this Forum, key representatives of the Virgin Islands cultural heritage and arts organizations met with the Territory’s principal emergency managers and first responders to lay the foundation for facilitating increased cooperation and effective emergency response in times of disaster. Executive Director Deanna James was a member of the Source of Funding panel. Members of the panel provided information about funding for cultural heritage stewards and arts organizations for disaster preparedness, emergency response, recovery techniques and disaster mitigation strategies. The same forum was also held on the island of St. Thomas.

DEVELOPING LEADERS

The St. Croix Foundation continues to be a guiding and grounding voice in meetings with territorial, federal, and other recovery partners, recognizing that while the recovery of our physical infrastructure continues, our need to rebuild and strengthen our community and its diverse members is equally important; important to the cultural life of the island, important to the sense of community among our populations, and important to rebuilding a more sustainable future for the Island. AmeriCorps VISTA on St. Croix will be a major step to enhance the capabilities of our nonprofits today and develop more leaders for the future. Key finding from the Nonprofit Disaster Recovery and Capacity Assessment showed that more than 90% of the nonprofits had damage to their facility as a result of the storm. Most nonprofits (69.6%) reported an increased demand for program services, yet 72.8% of nonprofits survey respondents were still operating on a limited basis or not at all. 75% of respondents said funds were a current need for their organization, 76.4% expressed the need for assistance identifying grant opportunities and 50% of organizations needed assistance marketing and advertising. Additional data from these surveys can be found at the St. Croix Foundation website: http://www.stxfoundation.org/hurricane-recovery/care-fund/.

To that end, the St. Croix Foundation is proposing a 12 Member VISTA Team with a VISTA Leader to assist multiple non-profits. Our work with our team of St. Croix’s nonprofits has illuminated this one fact: everything really is connected to everything! When seemingly disparate organizations sit at one table and gain understanding of each other’s work and challenges, the intersections where missions and visions meet is unearthed, and bridges are built. We seek to continue directing resources at those points to support collective impact and sustainability. In line with the AmeriCorps VISTA Core Principles, St. Croix Foundation work is rooted in anti- poverty focus, community empowerment, sustainable solutions and capacity building.

The St. Croix Foundation is committed to providing increased services to nonprofit organizations and dedicated to VISTAs for this disaster recovery project including office space, shared professional services, professional development, and a network for grassroots and NGOs conducting hurricane relief efforts. In compliance with the VISTA Program Guidance, VISTAs will support the long-term recovery of the St. Croix community. Throughout their various roles with the nonprofits, VISTAs will provide programmatic, technical, research and outreach assistance. The Foundation anticipates that with greater data available and a stronger operational structure, nonprofits will be able to provide a more cohesive approach to fully uniting the civic sector around a vision for St. Croix and the Virgin Islands through our work with AmeriCorps VISTA. Through assistance from AmeriCorps VISTA and driven by data, nonprofit organizations spanning arts and culture, youth and education, public safety, environmental preservation and community revitalization will identify projects necessary for the community and partner on critical work that will them to leverage resources, to increase impact on targeted low-income populations, and to sustain and expand programs to ensure the future health and prosperity of this island community.

STAYING THE COURSE

As we continue to ensure that the Virgin Islands remains relevant and on the radar of many national funders, we are also ensuring that our nonprofits remain a part of the holistic recovery. We are currently preparing to host our 3rd Annual Philanthropic Retreat in February 2019. The Retreat will focus on our work during the recovery and our plans for rebuilding. Because of these convenings, we now have personal champions who know St. Croix, who know St. Croix Foundation, who know the passion and potential of our civic leaders, and who are working to open doors of opportunities for St. Croix.

Hurricane Rebuilding by Empowering & Strengthening NonprofitsAs the nation once again prepares for yet another Superstorm as Hurricane Florence approaches the coast of the Carolinas, one year after the two Category 5 Storms hit the U.S Virgin Islands, we are reminded of the critical importance of long-term philanthropic support for American citizens living on a remote island trying to recover from a catastrophic disaster. For St. Croix, which is 10 miles wide and 25 miles across in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, the stakes are very high.

What if government systems collapse and private sector operations shut down? That’s what happened on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands in September of 2017. In fact, it’s what happens in most small, remote communities. Who fills major service gaps such as a nonworking 9-1-1 phone call? Who ensures that our elderly are safe in their homes when our health and human service agencies have collapsed. Who serves thousands of displaced children when the public schools are condemned, and the system is in chaos? It’s St. Croix’s nonprofits that fill those critical gaps.

But what happens if St. Croix isn’t on the national philanthropic map? What happens if issues of inequity, often exacerbated after natural disasters, affect local funding and there are no advocates for vital nonprofit organizations that are filling increasing needs with fewer resources?

This is why St. Croix Foundation for Community Development is aggressively supporting our St. Croix Nonprofits through a myriad of philanthropic strategies from grantmaking and advocacy to direct services through our Nonprofit Consortium and today, one year after the storms, we can say that our nonprofits are getting stronger, serving more of our most vulnerable residents, and creating strong collaborations.

GETTING THE VIRGIN ISLANDS ON THE PHILANTHROPIC MAPThe St. Croix Foundation hosted a small delegation of Board members from the Southern Partners Fund (SPF) from July 11th -15th. Southern Partners Fund is a 501(c)(3) public foundation serving grassroots organizations in rural communities across 12 states; Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Their visit to St. Croix served to help the Foundation make a case for expanding SPF’s funding map to include the Territory.

With a commitment to “giving voice and opportunity to marginalized and underserved communities and families in the rural south, SPF’s mission is to support rural Southern communities and organizations seeking social, economic, and environmental justice by providing them with financial resources, technical assistance and training, and access to systems of information and power to shift the balance of power in their communities.

One of the primary goals of SPF’s visit was to expand opportunities to get the Territory ‘on the map’ and recognized as a relevant and legitimate funding priority for national funders. The Foundation fundamentally believes that one of the critical components of a holistic recovery is a healthy civil society.

With far too many of our nonprofit organizations too dependent on government subsidies the Foundation hosted 20 of our local nonprofits in an intimate gathering with SPF with the overarching goal to support our nonprofits so that they can ultimately exert the level of political power necessary to advocate for an equitable recovery and for social justice for the constituents they serve.

Organizations that connected with Southern Partners Fund include St. Croix Women’s Coalition, who serves as an advocate and direct service provider for victims of abuse and violence; the Caribbean Centers for Boys and Girls, who serves nearly 200 young people every single day; the St. Croix Landmark’s Society, who houses one of the most comprehensive culture and heritage archives on the African Diaspora in the region; and the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, whose wide range of economic, educational, artistic, cultural and civic events and services are bringing together community in an innovative and culturally relevant way!

The Foundation, through their Nonprofit Consortium, is working to elevate the efficacy and force of the nonprofit sector and in turn build a model for other communities’ recovery and sustainability efforts. Toward that end, SPF has already made a commitment to supporting the work of St. Croix non-profits through several direct grant awards to local nonprofit organizations.

ST. CROIX FOUNDATION HOSTS WEEKLONG COMMUNITY-BUILDING ACTIVITIES WITH WORLD RENOWNED SYSTEMS CHANGE & SOCIAL EQUITY AGENTSIn the aftermath of any disaster, rebuilding efforts must be grounded in each community’s unique culture and DNA. It is common, however, for redevelopment to happen with marginalized groups very much on the sidelines and for the fabric of a community’s culture and core values to be torn apart by disaster capitalism which can oftentimes exploit community’s in the areas of employment, housing, health, and education. To mitigate this and ensure that our nonprofits have the ability to advocate for the vulnerable residents they serve, the Foundation has undertaken to provide real technical skills and introduce nonprofits to advocacy-based organizations. Here’s just a snapshot of our recent convenings:

In early August the Foundation hosted a week of activities geared at empowering organizations and our community at-large to become change agents. Led by Tuesday Ryan-Hart, an internationally renowned systems change strategist who has worked with organizations and stakeholders engaged in community building, we introduced over 55 organizations in 3 days to a new concept of community engagement entitled, “The Art of Hosting” to help build organizing capacity in our community through conversations and training around high impact collaborations.

The Foundation also hosted a two-day session with the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) which has committed itself to increasing national philanthropic engagement in the U.S. Caribbean (USVI & Puerto Rico). In the aftermath of the Hurricanes, ABFE is nurturing a shift toward greater social equity and philanthropic investments in communities of color which have historically been ignored by the field. 25 of St. Croix’s nonprofits joined, representing organizations that are directly advocating for a food security, workforce development, historic and community revitalization and the preservation of our environment and culture and heritage.

Nonprofit Consortium – Building Infrastructure!As stated in the St. Croix Foundation’s Third Quarterly Report for the Nonprofit Consortium, a 30-60-90 day plan for building infrastructure around the Consortium was built and is today officially being implemented. While much of the work will be ongoing, the Foundation is currently pleased to report on the following components of the plan:

Practice inclusion – Recent events such as the Art of Hosting and the convening hosted by ABFE as well as our workshops with the Southern Partners Fund listed above were opportunities for nonprofits and interested partners and agencies to witness and practice internal development work as well as an opportunity to connect with agencies they may not have been able to reach in the past. These convenings also built technical skills around collaboration, building awareness for public advocacy, hosting effective meetings, and analyzing issues through an equity and data based lens.

Develop a logo and an overall brand for the Nonprofit Consortium – St. Croix Foundation recently offered the Nonprofit Consortium a logo and tagline of “Holding the Vision”. The Foundation is now working to have Consortium members provide input and vote on the formal adoption of this logo.

Refine and distribute Nonprofit Consoritum Contact Listing – An ongoing activity and critical to communications and gaining traction, the NPC Listing is regularly updated and distributed to members.

Create a Facebook page – To share our calendar of activities and events and provide announcements pertinent to the community that will enhance connectivity a group has been created within the St. Croix Foundation’s Facebook page to begin sharing announcements and updating our NPC. Once the official logo has been decided, the page will be made active but exclusively for NPC member.

Building structure around the Foundation's NPC will provide greater communication and leveraging of resources for nonprofits who are actively working to help St. Croix recover from the hurricanes. Because of the support of GlobalGiving and some generous support of local corporate citizens, we’ve been able to build the cornerstones of what we know is already becoming a strong consoritum of nonprofits who have the capacity to affect social change that connects with St. Croix’s economy, environment, culture and heritage, and the education of our young people.

We wish to thank our generous partners who have made all of the Foundation’s work possible and hope you’ll stay the course with us. Making the Nonprofit Consortium possible makes anything possible!

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